At AFP 2021, treasury and finance professionals took part in engaging industry roundtables that discussed challenges they are facing along with potential solutions. The industry roundtables, sponsored by Fifth Third Bank, each focused on a different sector: banking, government, insurance, manufacturing, retail, utilities and health services.

One of the roundtables, which focused on energy and utilities, was moderated by Frank D'Amadeo, director of treasury at Con Edison. Attendees held an engaging discussion centered around various topics including capital investments, credit card acceptance and fraud, lockboxes, treasury workstations, and others.

With regard to treasury workstations, some attendees noted that their company feels pressure to evaluate from IT. One attendee explained that while a treasury workstation is an idea tool to handle investment and risk analysis, it would require strong technology support and everyone participating in the selection process.

On the same topic of technology, attendees also discussed moving to the cloud and the pros and cons that come along with it. What does this do to the IT team? Do you still need the same amount of people? These were questions bounced around as they talk about whether their teams would implement or not. One attendee brought up that of course, security in the cloud would be an important discussion and companies would need to make sure the cloud translated to network security.

Another roundtable session, which focused on insurance, was moderated by Jason Bruewer, CTP, cash management manager at Western and Southern Financial Group. This discussion center around topics such as the Nacha data protection rule, business continuity and resiliency, check printing, claim payment technologies, and fraud.

With regard to check printing and distribution, attendees discussed how it has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic environment. Some said that at their companies, people were forced to go away from checks, and it stuck — others returned to checks as soon as the world began to open again. However, a couple attendees noted that they struggled to get people away from checks, and it has been difficult to convert.

The discussion ended with the importance of protecting against fraud. A few attendees had examples of vendors that had systems hacked and were victim of email scams. Attendees emphasized the importance of having strict security processes in place so that companies do not fall into fraud.

Did you attend AFP 2021 virtually or in person? Don’t forget you have access to sessions until December 31, 2021. Learn more.